


On This Night

by MittenWraith



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, Christmas Fluff, Dean knows his tropes, First Kiss, M/M, POV Castiel (Supernatural), SPN Holiday Mixtape, Snowed In
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 22:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21746224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MittenWraith/pseuds/MittenWraith
Summary: Something goes terribly wrong while hunting a djinn. Newly-human Cas had never considered what the effects of djinn poison could be for a human, and struggles to remember why everything seems just so slightly off when he wakes up back at the cabin he and Dean had been staying in during the hunt. The cabin has been transformed with holiday decorations, and Cas wonders just how long he'd been unconscious. Only when he tries to get answers from Dean, reality comes crashing back in on them both, in the best of all possible ways.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 32
Kudos: 324
Collections: Holiday Mixtape 2019





	On This Night

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays to everyone! It's time for my annual venture into winter fluff land! I'd like to thank the lovely organizers of the [SPN Holiday Mixtape](https://holidaymixtape.tumblr.com/)for once again collecting an annual bounty of delightful holiday fic and art! Thanks!

They carefully pushed through the brittle yellowed curtain of stiff plastic strips and into the main storage room of the ramshackle warehouse. Dean went first, holding the grimy plastic slats to one side as Cas slipped through, and then as quietly as he could let them fall back into place. Snow drifted in through several of the shattered windows high up on the warehouse’s walls, probably long broken out by the same kids who left behind the collection of bottles and cans strewn about the floor. Cas spared a moment to hope the djinn they’d been hunting hadn’t interrupted their party, and all of them went on to live long and happy lives in blissful ignorance of the supernatural.

As far as Dean and Cas could tell, the djinn had only been in the area for a few weeks. Or at least it had only been pulling victims from the nearby town for the last few weeks. Nothing in their research had mentioned that a mass disappearance had ever occurred within a hundred miles of the warehouse. Only three people had been reported missing over the last month or so, and only one of them had been found drained of blood a few miles outside of town. Cas let that thought steady him as he followed Dean deeper through the maze of empty shelves and abandoned equipment turning the cavernous warehouse into a treacherous maze.

Dean stopped at the edge of a stack of moldering crates and peeked around the corner. They had their flashlights at the ready, but so far there’d been just enough sodium orange glow spilling through those broken windows from the nearby streetlights that they hadn’t needed to use them. If they could manage to find the djinn’s pantry before it realized a couple of hunters were closing in on it, they stood a much better chance of saving two missing women. Only they were running out of nooks and crannies in the vast complex where it could still be hiding. Time was not on their side, with the snow picking up and the temperature dropping.

Dean turned back to him and gave a little nod. They were pressed so close together where they crouched behind the splintered panels in a patch of decaying straw spilling out onto the floor. Cas wouldn’t risk asking what Dean had seen. He knew from the determined look in Dean’s eyes that the two remaining victims were close now, but if the djinn himself had been there, Dean wouldn’t still be huddling beside him. Dean would’ve jumped into action and taken the monster out by now, confident in the knowledge that Cas would’ve been right behind him. Instead, they waited, their breath solidifying into frozen clouds in the scant inches between them.

Dean looked into his face for a beat longer that Cas had been expecting, and he tilted his head to the side trying to understand if Dean was attempting to convey something important. This was not the sort of situation he wanted to misunderstand Dean’s silent communications. Instead of clarifying, Dean gave him a little smile and then glanced back over Cas’s shoulder with a slight nod. He didn’t need the words to understand _you watch our six_. Cas returned Dean’s smile and reluctantly turned away, lamb’s blood coated knife at the ready, to keep an eye out for the djinn down the dark hallway behind them.

Dean’s patience ran out less than a minute later, though. He turned and nudged Cas, leaning in close to risk whispering in his ear.

“We could be waiting here a while. We should get the antidote into Lani and Violet. I don’t know how far gone they are, but they’re not dressed for this weather.”

Cas just nodded, determined to at least save the victims if the djinn wasn’t going to show himself. It hardly mattered if they got the monster but let two innocent women die while they just sat there watching and waiting. Dean gave him a grim nod and then leaned in close again. Cas felt Dean’s warm breath freeze against his cheek.

“I go left, you go right.”

Cas hadn’t seen the setup, the layout of the space, but he trusted Dean, and understood the plan, thin as it was on the details. He gave one decisive nod of understanding, Dean peeked around the corner again, drew a syringe filled with djinn poison antidote from his pocket, and then without another word hurried out from their makeshift cover. Cas had been right on his heels. He watched Dean quickly inject the antidote and disconnect the IV from the first victim as he rushed past him to the second, until a hand covered in glowing blue tattoos shot out in front of his face. Cas barely had time to call out a warning to Dean before, newly human as he was, he’d succumbed to the djinn’s poison.

At first Cas thought Dean must’ve gotten him out of the warehouse and back to the cabin they’d been staying at. That’s where he woke up-- only the barebones hunting cabin he’d remembered had been transformed. It was still nighttime, which made Cas wonder if it was even the same night, or if he’d been asleep or unconscious for a full day. His head felt fuzzy, and the more he woke up, the more his thoughts felt trapped and muffled. He’d been having a strange dream, but as he sat up in bed, he couldn’t quite recall what it had been about. He did remember this cabin, though. Or he thought he did.

When they’d broken in the day before, the cabin had been locked up for winter, the furniture covered with sheets to protect it from dust and the windows shuttered. He and Dean had uncovered the sofa and other furniture, made up the bed, and made it comfortable for themselves. Somehow, since he’d last seen it, the entire cabin had been festively redecorated. A six foot Christmas tree stood in one corner decked out with a rainbow assortment of lights and glittering baubles. Holly and pine garland had been draped across the stone mantle above a blazing fire, tied with red bows. A pile of wrapped gifts sat beneath the tree, and the tables at each arm of the sofa bore tall pillar candles that seemed to be giving off a subtle aroma of cinnamon. Perhaps most bizarrely, Dean was nowhere in sight.

Dean had flipped a coin the previous day for who got the bed and who was resigned to the admittedly comfortable sofa beside the fire, so Cas wasn’t surprised to find himself tucked beneath the down quilts on the bed in the far corner of the cabin’s only room, even if he couldn’t remember exactly how he’d gotten there. He called out to Dean, but got no reply, and so he cautiously climbed out of bed, blinking away a bit of wooziness as he got his balance. He stood in stocking feet on the braided wool rug beside the bed, feeling a little chill and already missing the fluffy quilt. His t-shirt and flannel pants weren’t enough to keep him warm that far from the fire.

Cas decided that whatever else was going on here, he needed to get warm first. He picked up a flannel shirt draped over one of the bedposts and pulled it on. It was only after he had it tightly wrapped around himself that he realized it was Dean’s. It was the shirt he’d worn the day before while they were…

Cas shook his head, unable to recall exactly what they’d been doing, but the shirt was warm, and he was sure everything would come back to him once he was fully awake. The soft flannel even smelled like Dean, he thought to himself, breathing the familiar scent in as he made his way over toward the fire. He stood there for a moment, letting the warmth soak into him while he admired some of the decorations on the tree.

“Our first Christmas,” one of the shiny baubles proudly proclaimed. Another appeared to be a tiny porcelain angel in flowing robes with wings spread wide. In one outstretched hand, the angel held a small harp, and Cas rolled his eyes at the hand-painted addition of a blue necktie. He poked at the angel, trying to remember why none of this seemed quite right. He didn’t have long to consider it before the front door of the cabin opened, and Dean pushed his way inside carrying an armload of logs for the fire, looking entirely out of sorts.

Dean froze in the doorway, staring at Cas for a moment before kicking the door shut and slowly making his way toward the fireplace with his wood. Dean’s cheeks were flushed pink from the cold outside, and he spent a few minutes warming himself by the fire as he carefully stacked up the wood, not seeming to know what to say to Cas.

“Are you warm enough, Dean?” Cas eventually asked. “You must’ve been outside for a while. I’ve been up at least ten minutes, and the weather doesn’t seem to have let up any.”

Dean cleared his throat and finally stood up, turning to face him with an uncertain smile. “Uh, yeah, it’s brutal out there. But we got plenty of wood for the fire. Looks like we’re gonna be snowed in for a while, though.”

Cas nodded slowly. They had supplies for that, right? For some reason, he couldn’t remember if they’d stocked the cabin with groceries. It wasn’t the sort of thing they normally did on a hunt, but this didn’t feel like a hunt at all. With the Christmas decorations, and presents beneath the tree, it felt more like a vacation. Why had he thought they’d been hunting? Maybe because this was a hunting cabin, the walls decorated with antlers and taxidermied trophies, and a bearskin rug covering the floor by the fireplace. But they’d been hunting something else, Cas was sure of it. Dean didn’t seem to remember that fact, either.

Something wasn’t right, but maybe he still wasn’t quite awake enough to figure it out. The one thing he could do was take care of Dean. That’s what he’d always done. And right now, Dean was cold and needed warming up. They’d both probably have clearer heads after a nice warm cup of cocoa.

“Let me make you some hot chocolate, and get you warm,” Cas said, walking to the small kitchen and looking through the cupboards for mugs. They were in the first cupboard he opened, and a box of cocoa powder was in the second. He found a gallon of milk in the fridge, and poured some into a saucepan on the stove to heat it up before portioning out the chocolate mix into their mugs. When he’d finished his task, he turned around to find Dean blinking at him, rather dumbstruck. Cas pushed off the counter and walked quickly over to Dean. Perhaps he wasn’t feeling himself, either.

“Are you sure you’re feeling all right, Dean? Maybe you should take off that wet coat and make yourself comfortable. I can bring the quilt from the bed if you want.”

Dean’s eyes went wide, but he complied with Cas’s request, taking off his jacket and hanging it over the back of a chair by the fire to dry out. He kicked off his snow-covered boots, as well, and cautiously settled himself at one end of the sofa, propping his feet up on the small coffee table to warm his toes.

“Um, yeah, Cas, I guess. I can’t seem to get warm. Thanks.”

Cas smiled at him and hurried back to the bed to grab the quilt. He draped it over Dean, lifting his feet to wrap the thick quilt beneath them, and frowning. “Your socks and jeans are soaked, Dean. What were you doing out there?”

“I, uh… was getting some more wood,” Dean replied, with a look of confusion, as if it hadn’t been perfectly obvious what he’d been doing when he’d come in with an armload of logs.

“Right, well, you might warm up faster if you change out of those wet things,” Cas replied, hurrying back to the kitchen to check on the milk. It gave him an excuse to turn his back on Dean, at least, so Dean wouldn’t keep giving him that strange, confused look.

“We’ll see how I feel after some hot chocolate,” Dean replied quietly.

Cas risked a glance back over his shoulder as he stirred the milk in the pan, and was relieved to see Dean settled on the sofa, head leaned back comfortably as he gazed at the twinkling lights on the Christmas tree. At least Dean seemed to be relaxing, even if he hadn’t mentioned the decorations that Cas couldn’t remember having been there before. He wondered if Dean hadn’t done all of this to surprise him, and if his strange mood had been disappointment that Cas hadn’t even acknowledged his efforts. He frowned down into the steam beginning to rise from the milk and switched off the burner. There was something he needed to remember. He’d ask Dean about it as soon as he made their drinks.

He tapped his spoon on the edge of the pan, and it sounded strange-- like a hollow and distant clanging, as if the cabin’s stout timber walls had cast an echo of the sound from far away. For a moment he remembered the warehouse, and a chill ran through him, but the memory fractured and drifted away just as quickly as it had come. Cas braced his hands on the counter for a moment and fought to hold on to it. They’d been hunting, trying to save two women from… something… He struggled to remember, but the chill wouldn’t leave his bones. He really needed to finish making the cocoa so he could warm himself up.

Cas poured the milk into both mugs and rinsed out the pan. He stirred the chocolate and wondered if they had any of those small marshmallows. Somewhere deep down, he knew they didn’t, but when he opened the cupboard to put the box of cocoa back, there they were on the shelf. He only hesitated for a moment before reaching for the bag and dropping a handful of marshmallows into each of their mugs. Something was definitely not right.

He picked up their drinks and carefully carried them over to the sofa, setting Dean’s down on the table beside him before walking around the sofa to sit at the other end, closest to the Christmas tree. The fire’s warmth felt good on his skin, but it did nothing to dissipate the chill in his gut. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dean pick up his mug and take a long, satisfied sip before cradling the warm cup in his hands and smiling over at him.

“When did you find the time to do all this?” Dean asked, poking at one of the marshmallows in his mug before taking another sip.

“Just now, Dean,” Cas asked, confused. “Did you fall asleep while I was in the kitchen?”

Dean shivered and shook his head. “Not the chocolate, Cas. All of this.” Dean waved a hand at the tree. “I feel bad I didn’t get anything for you now.”

Cas frowned at him, and ignored the new chill that ran through him. He set his mug down and slid off the sofa, kneeling down by the pile of presents. He picked up the one closest to him and held it up to show Dean.

“To Cas, From Dean,” Cas read off the label. “This one is from you, Dean. I should be the one apologizing. I thought I slept through all your hard work. I appreciate you trying to surprise me, but I would’ve gladly helped.”

Cas looked up just in time to catch Dean’s frown before he worked his face back into something more neutral. Dean set his mug down, too, and crawled out of the blanket cocoon Cas had wrapped him in. A moment later, Dean was on his knees beside Cas, sifting through the rest of the gifts. Cas watched in confusion as Dean pointed out that half the gifts were from each of them, to the other. Kneeling there on the floor, shoulder to shoulder, holding gifts that neither of them could remember buying, they slowly turned to look at one another.

“You didn’t put up the tree, did you?” Dean asked quietly.

Cas shook his head. “And you didn’t, either.”

“I kinda wish I had now, but no.”

“I assume you don’t remember going outside to get more firewood, either.” Cas said, slowly feeling the cold creep back into his bones despite kneeling right in front of the roaring fire. “Just like I don’t remember going to sleep in that bed.”

“I remember standing on the steps out front with an arm full of logs, but nothing before that, which means I’m pretty sure I know what’s going on here.”

Dean got to his feet and then hesitated for just a moment. He stood there looking at the ornaments with a sadness Cas felt like a blow to his chest. Dean shook himself off and then carefully held a hand down to Cas. Cas took it and stood up beside Dean. When Dean didn’t let go of his hand, Cas knew he was about to have all of his questions answered. Well, all of them except the one this entire scenario had seemingly been designed to convince him of, because it would take more than a Christmas miracle for that wish to ever come true. Dean looked into his eyes for a moment longer, and then sighed and gave his hand a little squeeze before releasing it.

“What’s the last thing you remember before you woke up here?” Dean asked, more quietly but more intensely, as if he was attempting to either insert the memory into Cas’s mind directly, or else extract it without Cas needing to speak.

“I… We were hunting, for something,” Cas said, lowering his voice as Dean had. “Every time I try to recall it… it’s like I’m blocked.”

Dean nodded, as if that were all the proof he needed. “Yeah, same. And that can only mean one thing.”

Dean waited, but when Cas didn’t immediately provide the answer as Dean had clearly expected him to, Dean sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered under his breath. “And now we’re back to square one, I guess.”

“Did you forget again?” Cas asked, reaching out a hand he’d intended to lay on Dean’s shoulder, but Dean backed away from him before he made contact. It hurt more than Cas had expected it to, especially when Dean turned a wary frown on him and took another step back. Cas let his hand drop to his side and wondered what had suddenly gone so wrong.

“No, I didn’t forget,” Dean said, his voice turning slightly colder to match the chill in the air. “I didn’t forget, but for a second there I thought you might actually be here with me, but it doesn’t work that way, does it? It’s all part of the dream. Which is fucked up when you think about it.”

“Dream? Is this a dream?” Cas said, looking back at the tree and catching sight of another ornament that was nothing more than a tiny picture frame with a photo he never remembered having been taken. He definitely wouldn’t have forgotten if Dean had ever looked at him with such fondness, their foreheads touching and smiles on both of their faces. He couldn’t help himself, and reached out to pluck the photo from its branch to study it more closely.

Dean had watched him without comment, and frowned when Cas handed him the picture, but he took it. The look that broke across Dean’s face as he ran his finger down the edge of the frame hurt Cas’s heart, like that one picture had crushed all the hope out of him. Dean didn’t look up from it as he quietly continued.

“Yeah, Cas. It’s all a dream.” He stuffed the picture in his shirt pocket, right over his heart Cas thought as a pain shot through his own chest. Dean rubbed his hands over his face, wiping away what Cas had been sure was the beginning of a tear before it could fall. Dean cleared his throat. “Damn djinn finally figures out the one thing that might convince me it was better to stay than to go back.”

Cas tilted his head to the side and frowned at Dean. “Djinn, yes. That’s what we were hunting. In a warehouse.” Cas’s eyes went wide as he put all the pieces together. “It’s cold there. That’s why we can’t seem to get warm here. Our bodies are still there. It must’ve captured us both.”

Dean blinked at him, and schooled his face into something neutral, but Cas hadn’t missed the look of quiet hope as Dean took a tentative step closer.

“Wait, you remember the djinn?”

“I remember finding two women in the warehouse, and you administered the antidote to one of them while I headed off to assist the other. The djinn must’ve been lying in wait for us, because the last thing I remember was a hand covered in glowing blue tattoos.”

“So it’s really you?” Dean asked. “How the fuck did that even happen? How did we both end up in the same djinn dream?”

Cas shrugged. “I’ve never been under the influence of a djinn before. I didn’t even recognize this for what it was,” he added, waving a hand around the cabin. “But djinn tap into the same part of a human mind that will eventually generate their victims’ heavens.” He frowned at the potential implications of that if he and Dean were able to share the same djinn dream, but pressed on at the surprised look on Dean’s face. “It’s possible that I just haven’t been human long enough to have accumulated enough… soul memory... for the djinn to work with, and it added me to your dream for the sake of convenience.”

“Pretty sure that’s not how it works, Cas,” Dean said, shaking his head. “I had to take dreamroot to pull Charlie out of a djinn dream once, so I could enter her dream. You don’t just get shoved into someone else’s happy place like that. Or in Charlie’s case her worst fear. Even when Michael was giving djinn the power to make their dreams reality, we all still saw different shit.”

Cas nodded slowly while processing all of that. “And would you say that this was your happy place?” His brow pinched as he recalled what Dean had said earlier. _The one thing that might convince me it was better to stay than to go back_. Cas had to ask, because if this was all a dream, he’d be tempted to stay, as well. It wasn’t that far off from their reality, but he stared at the pocket of Dean’s shirt where the picture of the two of them was concealed and felt his heart clench.

Dean stared at him for a good long minute before sighing and turning around. “It’s pretty much our normal life, right? I mean, this is just one more stop on the road. I’m betting we could get in the Impala and drive back to the bunker and look for another hunt. This fucking djinn didn’t even try to take that from me this time. Hell, for all I know Sam’s back there waiting for one of us to call. But...”

Cas hesitantly finished his sentence for him. “But there are some substantial differences. For one thing, in this dream we seem to have come here expressly to spend the holiday, rather than to hunt the djinn.”

“Yeah,” Dean said, looking down at the floor as his shoulders slumped. “And that’s the bit that almost had me.” He turned around and looked up at Cas with a wariness in his eyes. “ _You_ almost had me.”

“I don’t understand, Dean. I’m really me, I’m here with you. I’m not trying to trick you. I don’t know how to prove that to you short of doing whatever it takes to break us out of this dream before we freeze to death in that warehouse.”

Dean blinked at that and took another step closer, holding his breath as he raised his hand to Cas’s shoulder. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, grounding himself, before opening them and looking right into Cas’s face, searching for something that Cas wished with every fiber of his being he would be able to deliver.

“You’re really you,” Dean said. “Cas… would you say this was your happy place? Trapped in a snowed in cabin with me for Christmas? The whole _there was only one bed_ thing and everything?”

Cas only had to think about that for a second. “The only thing that would make it any happier was if I didn’t feel so cold. I don’t think I’d say no to a cheeseburger, either.”

Dean laughed at that and pulled Cas into a hug. “Okay then, we’re gonna get outta here. Together. I think that’s the only chance we got.”

“How does one normally escape djinn dreams?” Cas asked, slowly raising his arms to wrap them around Dean’s back when it became clear that Dean was not about to let him go yet.

“Someone giving you a shot of the antidote is the easiest way, but, uh, it varies,” Dean said, pulling back and frowning at Cas. “First time I was under, it was before we knew about the antidote. I had to kill myself inside the dream to wake up. Killing the djinn is easier, but he’s out there and we’re in here, so I don’t think that’s gonna happen unless we can wake up.”

“Do you have an idea that doesn’t involve a murder-suicide, even if it isn’t real?”

Dean smiled fondly and shook his head. “I don’t know, man, but if we both wound up in the same dream together because we both made the same wish, then there might be another way.”

“I’m prepared to try anything, Dean. As tempted as I might be to stay here with you forever, nothing will change unless we choose to go back to our lives.”

“Well, we won’t have a Christmas tree back there, or presents,” Dean replied.

Cas shrugged. “We can get those things if you really want them.”

“And, uh…” Dean said, his arms still around Cas’s shoulders as he looked directly into his eyes. “What if I wanted something else? Something I thought we had here when I thought you were just part of the dream?”

“You… you want that, with me?” Cas asked, feeling his hopes rising again.

“We both seem to have wished this, so I’m hoping I’m not misunderstanding anything here, but it’s worth a try. Beats the hell out of dying, even in a dream.”

Cas worked his way through everything Dean wasn’t saying. They hadn’t just wished the same wish, but the resulting dream had manifested for them both as a unit. Like a shared heaven. He had more pressing things to worry about before wondering what that could possibly mean for them. “You think the djinn is unaware of the fact that we’re both trapped in the same dream together?”

Dean shrugged. “I don’t think I ever heard of it happening before, outside of a few flashes I thought was a ghost haunting me that first time I got dosed, so… probably? Worth a shot, right? Is there any magical spell that can’t be broken by true love’s kiss, or whatever?”

Cas felt Dean stiffen in his arms when he realized what he’d said out loud. The moment Dean began to backpedal on his declaration, Cas squeezed him tighter.

“There are many spells that can’t be broken by true love, but in this case, I definitely agree it’s worth a try.”

Dean stopped struggling against his hold, and the tension ran out of them.

“What’s the worst that could happen, Dean? We’ll still be stuck here, but at least we’ll still have a plan B.”

“Yeah, well, the worst that could happen is that we could do this, and then get out of here, and you’d let me down easy, tell me it was just about saving our asses, and then I’d never get to do this again. That would be worse than having to stab myself again. Or watching you stab yourself. I’d prefer it if nobody had to do any stabbing at all here.”

“Whatever happens,” Cas promised him, “when we wake up in the warehouse, I will want to continue this. We can stop on the way back to the bunker and buy a Christmas tree, if you’d like. Perhaps we’ll be able to find some of the same decorations,” he added, patting Dean’s pocket where the photo of the two of them still sat. “Or make our own.”

“Yeah,” Dean said, and cleared his throat. “Yeah, we can do that, Cas.”

Cas nodded, closing his eyes and letting his forehead rest against Dean’s. Dean shivered in his arms and Cas ran his hand up and down Dean’s back.

“Are you ready, Dean?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Dean replied. “Here goes nothing.”

“More like, here goes everything,” Cas corrected him, and Dean grinned at him before coming in for a kiss.

It only lasted a moment or two, but it could’ve been the rest of their lives for how the kiss had seared itself into their memories. One moment he’d been warm and safe in Dean’s arms, and the next Cas awoke on the warehouse floor, in the same spot where the djinn had dropped him before apparently tackling Dean and administering his poison.

They must not have been under very long, because the djinn was still in the process of tying Dean up, and Cas himself hadn’t even been moved yet, let alone restrained in any way. Dean was also awake again, and struggling against the djinn, but Cas knew he wouldn’t have very long before the djinn would poison Dean again and send him right back to the dream world they’d just escaped. It was up to him to save them all now.

Cas looked around and spotted his knife lying a few feet away under the nearest shelf. As quietly as he could, he reached for it. As soon as his fingers wrapped around the hilt, he sprang to his feet and stabbed the djinn in the back, straight through to his heart. It fell to the ground and Cas stepped over its corpse to help Dean free himself. When he’d cut through the ropes binding his wrists, Cas pulled him in for a victorious kiss.

“I still feel we’ve been denied our due,” Cas said, as he caught his breath and Dean stared at him awestruck. “But under the circumstances, I think it would be best to put that on hold for the moment.”

Dean rubbed his wrists and leaned in for another kiss, giving him a little smirk as he pulled away. “I’m gonna hold you to that, Cas.”

The two women were stirring now that the djinn was dead. Dean gave him a little nod, and they finished what they’d set out to do. They administered the antidote to speed the womens’ recovery long. The moment they were both freed, they pushed past Dean and Cas and ran to one another, embracing like they were holding on for dear life.

“Violet, honey, please tell me you’re real. This is real, right?” Lani said, caressing the other woman’s face as she turned to Dean and Cas for confirmation.

Dean nodded. “Yeah, this is real. You were drugged, but we took care of it.”

“You were in my dream,” Lani said, “but it wasn’t you. It was almost you, but not quite right. It was awful.”

The two women clung to each other for another moment before Dean reluctantly broke up their reunion. “We should probably get outta here. Get you both warm, and back home.”

Violet nodded, and they held on to each other for support as Dean and Cas led them out to the Impala. Dean got a blanket out of the trunk as Cas helped them into the back seat. They were cold and stiff from having been bound in the frigid warehouse for more than a day, but by the time they arrived home they’d already begun to warm up.

Once they were safely inside their home, Dean turned to Cas.

“So, what’s the plan? You wanna crash one more night in our little cabin, or you wanna head for home?”

Cas frowned at that and glanced up at the sky through the windshield, at the snow that continued to fall. “I think we’d be better off heading toward home ourselves. Unlike in the dream, if we were snowed in now, we wouldn’t have a magical pantry full of hot chocolate and marshmallows to keep us warm and fed.”

Dean looked mildly disappointed at that, but then shrugged. “Yeah, if we’re gonna get snowed in, we should find a motel next door to a diner or something.”

“That sounds agreeable,” Cas replied, and leaned across the front seat to plant a kiss on Dean. Now that he could, he didn’t want to stop.

Dean didn’t seem to want to stop, either, but they probably had a long drive ahead of them, and neither of them really wanted to be snowed in by the side of the road.

“Right, then. First motel we see that’s walking distance to a diner, we’re calling it a night.”

Cas hummed. “Is it wrong that I’m hoping there’s only one bed?”

“Absolutely not,” Dean said, shifting into gear, and then taking his hand and grinning over at him. “Gotta keep warm somehow, right?"

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y'all enjoyed it! If you're suddenly having an overwhelming urge to read all the holiday fluffs, you can find all your heart desires by checking out the rest of the wonderful art and fic that the [SPN Holiday Mixtape collection](https://holidaymixtape.tumblr.com/) has to offer.
> 
> To see the rest of my personal holiday fic from the last five years, you can find it all handily collected [in this post right here](https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/181338955040/happy-holidays-have-some-holly-jolly-destiel)! (and if you're in the mood for something not holiday related, please see the rest of my fic on AO3... there's something for every season of the year!)
> 
> As usual, you can always find me on the tumbls. I'm [mittensmorgul](http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com)


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